This invention relates to a mounting for multiple jewels or gemstones onto jewellery such as a finger ring, in a manner that achieves the greatest possible visual exposure of the jewel while achieving secure retention of the stones within the ring.
Gemstones have primarily been secured to a ring by a bezel or a series of claws, which girdle the stone. The unfortunate result is that although the stone is securely fastened to the ring it is also partially occluded, preventing the most advantageous visual presentation of the gemstone and its access to sufficient light rays for the illuminating the stone. Further, as wear occurs to the ring, the fastening devices often become snagged on garments or fabric with resultant loosening or breakage, which can result in the sudden loss of the gemstone. There has been developed in the past, a compression-mounting means for incorporating a single gemstone on a ring. In particular, applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,084,108 and 5,188,679 which issued to Kretchmer on Jan. 28, 1992 and Feb. 23, 1993 respectively, both of which teach precious metal alloy compression-spring gemstone mounting wherein, a gemstone placed in the mounting is retained therein by the compressive spring force of the alloy. This prior art generally requires that the ring be opened, that is, formed as an incomplete circle or U-shape, which allows the adjacent ends of the ring to be slightly resiliently separated. The adjacent ring ends and/or the gemstone may be contoured so that when a stone is placed between resiliently separated ring ends, and the separated ring ends are permitted to assume their nearly closed aspect under the resilient compressive forces inherent to the ring, the gemstone is firmly secured in place. Similarly, the prior art teaches the resilient mounting of a gemstone between the overlapping ends of a ring formed as a helix.